The Tyranny of a Rational Mind
by Saul Good
Summary: Alexis and Castle approach a problem with logic.
1. Chapter 1 - Foreshadow

Time Frame: A few years or so after both BtVS &amp; AtS finales. Uses no canon after that.

Rating: T-Mature (cuz Faith still curses like a sailor)

Legalities: All B:tVS characters are that of the Mighty Whedon and his glorious intellect &amp; Castle is the property of ABC. This work is meant only in celebration and nothing ulterior

* * *

Chapter 1 \- Foreshadow

Richard Castle and his daughter Alexis both gave long worried looks at the bathroom trash bin. Another door knob replaced after the last had been disfigured, crushed by the smallest hands in the house. Her ginger hair was nearly orange in the bright light of day spilling from the window. Barely sixteen and filled with wisdom beyond her years, she knew this was not a normal part of the whole 'when a girl turns into a woman speech.' This was something completely different.

"Maybe it was just a bad door knob." Alexis threw out there. Her eyebrows knitted hearing the words herself. Her father made the same face.

"One bad door knob is plausible. Two though," The weary father shook his head "points to the person using the door knobs, Alexis." They both looked crestfallen. What was going on?

The day dragged on and Castle's phone stayed suspiciously quiet. No calls from his favorite NYPD Detective yet. He was sprawled out on a couch in his living room, his daughter threw darts at a board across the room. A low groan from Alexis let her displeasure be known.

"Same thing?" her father asked sitting up.

"Yeah." was the despondent answer. They both looked over. Every single dart that was thrown was a bull's-eye. The both frowned.

"You're a mutant!" the elder Castle cried out and immediately shrunk from the look his daughter gave him.

"Thanks, dad, that didn't cross my mind yet." The teen moaned in exasperation. Richard Castle frowned, this was weird. The whole thing stank of origin set-up and it would have been more exciting if it wasn't his daughter. He knew the price of what could come, he'd read the ending to those stories a million times. He even wrote a few.

"Alexis, listen we have to go through this rationally." Castle offered.

"Agreed." Alexis replied smartly. "This can be dangerous; no way can I just go around crushing things with my bare hands. That's more attention than I want." Her head bobbed as she spoke, visibly agreeing with herself. Castle relaxed a little hearing his daughter's logical side taking over the problem. The kid was a thinker, where she got those brains was a mystery he'd love to read.

"Right, so we can either find out your limits or just learn how to control yourself enough prevent you from crushing things." Castle brainstormed.

"What's the worse that could happen if I just learn control?" his daughter queried, her ginger eyebrows furrowed.

Castle gave that genuine thought. "You could lose it and do something you didn't expect." He spoke honestly.

"Like hurt someone."

"Maybe."

"Maybe worse?"

"Maybe." Castle nodded morosely. That was the problem with having a mind like Castle's. He could see beyond most men, see the possibilities as they spilled out like words on a page. Like the stories he wrote, a foreshadow was cast and his face darkened. A father protects his daughter no matter what. "Too many unknowns."

"Limits then, unknowns are dangerous right now." Alexis stated grimly.

"Let's see what else you can crush." her father offered.


	2. Chapter 2 - Call of the Night

Time Frame: A few years or so after both BtVS &amp; AtS finales. Uses no canon after that.

Rating: T-Mature (cuz Faith still curses like a sailor)

Legalities: All B:tVS characters are that of the Mighty Whedon and his glorious intellect &amp; Castle is the property of ABC. This work is meant only in celebration and nothing ulterior

* * *

Chapter 2 \- Call of the Night

His daughter had become stronger than Richard Castle could believe; dead-lifting nearly half a ton barely broke into a light sweat across her forehead. Her agility was astronomical as well, simply watching Olympic athletes perform their routines on streamed video was enough for Alexis to duplicate them almost perfectly. She flipped and spun and cartwheeled across the gym mat with such ease, it was as though she had practicing all her life, not the single day she was attempting them. Incredible strength, speed, and dexterity; his daughter was a near certified super-hero.

The day they had spent testing her newly found abilities in their building's gym only served to deepen the dread Castle felt. The potential this thrust upon her was endless, as well as the danger. The only thing that seemed to give him any comforting feelings was the fact that his daughter could at least kick anyone's ass that messed with her now. Unless, of course, there were others like her. Richard Castle scowled as he watched his daughter perform yet another tumbling leap, landing him front of him grinning with childish enthusiasm. Could there be others like her? He covered his face with an easy smile, not wanting to worry his only child.

"That was awesome!" The teen exclaimed, her adrenaline erasing the anxiousness she felt when she began accidentally started crushing brass doorknobs. The thrill of power ran through her now and she was loving it. This was starting to feel more like a roller-coaster than the curse she originally felt about her change, but there was something else scratching at her, a niggling she could not place. For now, Alexis ignored it and allowed her childishness have free reign.

"Dad, did you see me?! Did you see what I did? I think I did a full somersault there! And that tuck and roll thing? Pretty cool right?" The little ginger's enthusiasm was clear, she was obviously impressed with what she just managed to do. She was sweating a little bit in the gym clothes she wore.

"It was pretty spectacular, pum'kin." Richard gave her the best smile he could muster. His daughter saw through it easily.

"But you're still worried." She scowled at him, her enthusiasm deflating from his concern. Castle breathed in deep, not wanting to lie.

"It's just that..."

"I know, this is crazy!" Alexis interjected. "But..."

"You're having so much fun?" Castle supplied with a knowing smile. His daughter grinned back, happy her father understood.

"Oh my god, dad! Did you see me? That flip was so cool! I was like, a hundred feet up! I'm faster, stronger. I'm like a pro athlete." the little red-head paused and corrected herself. "No better than a pro, I'm a freakin' ninja!"

A sudden wide eyed look in Castle's eye made her pause. "That's it!" He pointed at her dramatically.

"What's it?"

"Maybe you're part of a long line of mystical ninja warriors that fight the forces of evil that only get their powers when they're teens!"

"You mean a Power-Ranger, dad?" Alexis asked with an incredulous little smile. Her father's brow knitted in confusion.

"I thought they just drove big robots that came together to make a bigger robot?"

"They had ninjas too, dad." The girl explained.

"Really?"

"Yeah, it was in one of their movies."

"That's so cool!"

"Uh-huh, it was in the first one."

"Huh, we should watch it together sometime." Castle offered, distracted from the original topic. His daughter smiled. She knew that this light banter was simply her father's way of coping, she had seen it time again when he dealt with the more brutal cases he handled over the years. As long as his was a normal reaction, or normal for her family, maybe things would turn out okay.

* * *

Father and daughter retired to their lavish apartment with the Castles having grown tired from the day and fell into an anxious sleeps. Alexis was fitful and sweating in her bed and finally woke up with a gasp. A dream, no, a nightmare. One filled with terrors already forgotten. Vague memories and hunting and then being hunted in turn. There was something still, a feeling, familiar but only vaguely. Maybe like unfinished pie, or mistakes on returned homework; Alexis realized she was unsatisfied. Within the fiber of her being, in her bones, in her blood, in heart, something felt unfinished.

While her father had fallen asleep long ago, Alexis now tossed and turned in her sheets. A turn of her head, full of messy red hair, she saw her bedside clock read 2:30 am. She groaned, she had class tomorrow. She crinkled her nose in frustration, her freckles wrinkling with her pale skin. She sat upright, and slumped a little. She made a face, annoyed at her insomnia but took a deep breath afterwards. Puffing her chest out as she inhaled, she let it out slowly, emptying her mind as well as her lungs. She used the mental exercise to relax her body. One more cycle of breath later, she opened her eyes slowly.

And then she saw it, a moon beam; bright, straight, and piercing. Her eyes traveled across its angled entry, and through her window, she saw the night. Clear, cold and inviting; she felt it tug at her soul. Getting out of bed, Alexis feet touched the carpeted floor and she felt energized. Barely four hours of sleep but she felt like any tiredness was long gone from her body. Another glance at dark blue night out her window and she rushed to her closet. Out of her sleeping clothes and into jeans, boots, leather gloves a scarf and a leather jacket over a heavy hooded sweater, she cracked her window open and stuck he head out. The sound of wind and cars and the city invaded the muggy October night.

She leaped up onto the ledge, wide enough for her to carefully walk upon, she found her footing and threw on her hood. As she rounded the corner over the alleyway behind her building, a strong gust hit her face and unbalanced her, she windmilled her arms and regained her center. She let out a few ragged breaths, spotted a fire escape and without thought, vaulted across and landed in a clumsy roll and hit a wall, leaving her a small heap. Her breath was quick now. The terror of her act only now catching up, as though it was behind her, following her leap.

Fear could be like that, skulking at your back like a pickpocket. Ready to take you right from yourself. From your person, your confidence, your focus, and your security is stolen. Alexis Castle did not like that one bit. Righting herself and dusting off some debris from her jacket, the little ginger huffed, her indignation fighting off any feelings of fear. She'd do better on the next jump.

With that, she scaled the metal fire escaped, heading higher for the roof. At the top she gazed over the city as wind whipped through her hood. She adjusted her scarf tighter, she could still feel the cold on her bones. It relaxed her, the shiver was a welcome sensation. Too much change, too quickly can be a jarring experience. The cold was a good reminder she was still human. A deep breath was taken, a jet of white cloud was exhaled. Without thinking about it, Alexis started running.

Across rooftops, on this cold Fall night, the young Castle began a slow looping pattern around her neighborhood. It wasn't a half-hour until she realized what she was doing. Alexis thought she was just running, instead, she was searching. Her cheeks puffed red as she breathed out a white cloud. For a while she lost her bearings, having no idea where she was going. Rooftop, after rooftop, another leap to another ledge, landing more stably. One lesson was all Alexis Castle needed. Finally she ended up by the edge of Central Park, by East 65th street. She crouched at the corner of a ledge as she peered over the sudden forested area, a bright green gash in between the stone and tarmac.

The direction into the park called to her and she found her way back down to the ground, joining the multitude of normal people still out and about on this cold New York City night. Pushing her head deep into her hood, Alexis walked the sidewalk towards the park. The feeling before was stronger, there was something around here, something she needed to find. Again, she ran.

Over pavement, over grass, through trees and bush, Alexis rushed towards a feeling that felt like it was so close. She ended up behind a small copse of trees, gripping a nearby branch so tightly, it bent from her strength. Then, Alexis heard footfalls, heavy boots and sneakers tromping on the dirt. She could smell an acrid tang of old laundry and of iron in the air. It all grew closer, and the sounds of insults and jeering were clearer. Alexis's breath caught in her throat.

In the moonlight she could see eight homeless men chase down another figure in a black leather duster and an electric shock of pale blonde hair. Closer still, and she could she the man in the duster more clearly. And yowzers, did someone carve those cheekbones out of granite? This guy was about to be cornered by some crazy bums and the smirk on his face was still clear, like the night was just starting for him. Three more came homeless people came from an opposite direction and closed in on him. He backpedaled for a second, and saw there was no way to avoid the the filthy group any longer. He ended up with his back a few feet away from the younger Castle with the group of chasers before him. They surrounded him and one began speaking.

"You die tonight, Judas." his beard was dirty and his clothes were mismatched, but he spoke with an edged authority. Agreements from the group of bums were called out.

"Oh, please." the man in the duster shot back as his hands reached into his coat pockets for a cigarette and a light. A puff of smoke later and the man continued, Cockney English accenting his speech. "I've faced uglier and smellier than you lot. You want this one at a time or all at once, then?" Alexis could hear the bravado and a surge of teenage hormones hit the ginger harder than she liked.

"Oh, God. What am I doing?" she whispered to herself and the blonde man cocked his head to her direction, as though he heard.

"We will tear you asunder, and leave you for the sun!" the speaker declared as the rest lunged at the blonde man, meaning to rip him apart. Before Alexis Castle realized it, she had snapped the branch off the tree and leaped out from her hiding place, landing in front of the blonde man. The branch was about arms length and the broken end was light tan of healthy maple.

"Get away from him!" She called out as she struck two of the bums in the face with the small tree limb and tripped up a third, all with one motion. The blonde ducked a punch and managed to grab his opponent to be used as a shield against other attackers.

"Nice timing, pet. You with the local girls? Got a spare stake on you?" The man asked casually as he threw the bum he was holding into another.

"What? A what?" Alexis dodged a wild swing and pushed her attacker away despite being confused at his words. She found her self back to back with the much taller blonde man.

"Bloody newbie, you don't have an extra stake? What're they teaching you these days?" he snarked over his shoulder. Alexis could hear the grin in his voice, and returned it.

"Actually it's my first day." the little ginger said with a smile

"Well, school's bloody in then." and he lunged at the crowd.

Alexis swung her branch and a bum took it full to the face. He should have gone down, Alexis knew she put more oomph into that swing. Instead a look of total rage was given by her attacker and then, his face turned. From a normal human, the dirty homeless man before her suddenly turned into a monster. Alexis shrieked as fangs lunged at her. All the rest of their attackers shared the same ridged foreheads and long fangs. Each had stark yellow eyes, like stripes on pavement.

"Holy shit!" She nearly fell backwards into the blonde man, who grabbed the branch from her and rammed the jagged end of it into her opponent. The once man, once monster, now dust, crumbled with a final shriek.

"Holy shit!" Alexis repeated. She was roughly pulled up back to her feet.

"Head in the game, pet. No time for that." The blonde man advised.

"Duck!" Alexis warned and they booth crouched missing a hard swing from one of the former homeless, now monsters.

The blonde man came up in a leap taking another monster out with the branch. Four more faced the tall Englishman at once, a trio came at Alexis. The tall cockney turned another into dust and struck another across the shoulder with the branch. A bone cracked and the thing fell limply to the ground howling in pain.

Alexis dodged three strikes, her movements had become almost fluid as she bobbed and weaved away from her three opponents punches and kicks. She was still not fast enough for a punch coming from her blindside. Alexis Castle had never been in a fight before, let alone getting struck with a fist. It was a jarring. Like sudden ice on skin, or like how her cab was struck by another car, but with more pain. Pain that blossomed like bright white stars for a few crucial seconds. She reeled from the strike and the monsters pounced.

Alexis felt like she was tugged backwards to the ground. She saw the shape of a black long coat stepping in front of her and the three things that she was just fighting. Another second to sit up on her elbows and two more of those feral bums turned to dust from a stab to the chest with her branch. Getting up, she took a moment to reorient herself and saw one of those monsters try to come at the blonde man's flank. Alexis threw herself into a flying tackle and knocked the would be assailant down. The little ginger grabbed his collar and head butted the monster twice with an almost snarl. A brutal haymaker to the face afterwards and the thing was punch drunk and dizzy.

"Out of the way, pet." was commanded behind her.

Alexis got shoved from her place and landed on the grass. The blonde man in the duster stabbed the branch into the thing's chest and, once again, flesh turned to dust and blew away into the Autumn breeze..

"Come on, then. There's about a dozen more where those unpleasant gentlemen came from." He reached down offering her his hand. She took it, a quirk in her brow. He pulled her up, more gently than she expected. When she was upright she could see the ice blue eyes and the smirk more clearly. Alexis near melted. Then, the rational part of her brain kicked in again.

"Were those vampires?" She choked out. The tall blonde Cockney gave a moment to study this girl's face.

"Bloody hell. Really first day o' class then?" The girl nodded and the tall man pulled away and stood with his back to her. A audible click and a loud intake of breath was heard. A loud sigh and a cloud of smoke wafted upwards to be taken by the wind.

"You already know, pet. If you didn't, you wouldn't have asked." He told her over his shoulder. The girl gave another second of thought and a dawning fear rolled into Alexis's brain.

"Are you a vampire, too?" She asked tentatively.

"What makes you think that, luv? " The cocking of a single eyebrow made Alexis want to coo but the heaviness of the question remained.

"They called you Judas. You were one of them and then, betrayed them. So, if those guys were vampires, you could be one too." Alexis explained with a confidence that was replaced with a special kind of terror. As she saw the tall blonde man come at her in a near blur of fang and yellow eyes, she felt the fear of getting what you ask for. She near yellped at his approach and he stopped just short of her in an examining posture. He took a long hard moment to really study her.

"Get goin', pet. Leave this one to the ol' big bads like me."

"You're telling me to go home? Why?" Alexis near whined, a need to fight more unsatisfied. "I can hold my own."

"Maybe you can. But you're still scared of monsters, pet, and you freeze like a deer in lights." Alexis pouted her indignation, hearing words she agreed with. "You're no good to me if I have to watch my back and yours." His face returned to a human one as he dismissed a now incensed teen.

"Well _soorrry_." She drew out the last word sarcastically. "That was my first fight, so excuse me for getting hit."

Another cloud of smoke. "S'my point you silly bird." the tall blonde man spoke with clear condescension. "You haven't been taught the lessons. You don't know how to take a hit . You don't even know rule one." He said as he started walking away. Voices approached them. "I'll lead them away, you just get your li'l self home."

"But I still have questions!" Alexis almost begged. "What am I? What's rule number one?" The blonde man turned to smile.

"Rule number one is 'don't die.'" He told her with another almost salacious grin at the little ginger. Alexis scowled hearing his words, there had to be more to it than that. "Check your pockets for a number. Call it when you're ready. Tell'im Spike sent ya." And he ran off in to the bushes disappearing.

Then, a loud screaming from an English voice from farther off. "Come on, then! Just dusted your first band of merry men, let's see what the rest of you got!"

Alexis's rational side took over hearing that and yet another, larger group, like the one that attacked that man. Spike, she could assume, he was protecting her. She would have been killed when she got cold-cocked back in fight. She felt like a worm, but she ran. Fear took her bravado from her without even knowing it and she bolted the other direction heading back uptown towards her loft.

Just like that man, Spike, had said there was a card in her jacket pocket. He must have slipped it in when he pulled her up. She took the subway back but scaled the walls of her apartment building by the alley to get back in through her window. In her room, she found the cellphone she had forgotten to bring. She was able to dial an area code and four numbers when her lights suddenly turned on.

"Where have you been Alexis?"

"Dad!" The daughter called out in surprise seeing the elder Castle at her bedroom door in his pajamas and robe. Wearing a look of complete anger.


	3. Chapter 3 - Daddy's Girl

Time Frame: A few years or so after both BtVS &amp; AtS finales. Uses no canon after that.

Rating: T-Mature (cuz Faith still curses like a sailor)

Legalities: All B:tVS characters are that of the Mighty Whedon and his glorious intellect &amp; Castle is the property of ABC. This work is meant only in celebration and nothing ulterior

* * *

Chapter 3 \- Daddy's Girl

"Three and a half hours, Alexis." Richard Castle almost shouted.

His daughter wanted to yell back something smart and snarky. She had enough of people telling her mistakes tonight, first from that man - no, that vampire, Spike, now from her father who had no idea what she had just gone through. No idea yet that she may have more answers for the both of them. She decided to take a breath and stay cool.

"Dad, it's okay." the younger Castle put her hands up trying to soothe her obviously furious father.

"No, it's not, Alexis. It is not!" Richard Castle now raised his voice to a yell. "Three hours and thirty damned minutes, Alexis! Do you understand?" His face was red and his eyes threatening to spill tears. "That's how long I didn't know where my daughter was! That's how long!"

Alexis's heart broke a little hearing the quiver in her father's voice. He was right in his anger, the teen realized, and it was her fault; any self-righteousness she felt bled away instantly.

"And not even with your cell-phone." Richard Castle continued. "I am scared already, Alexis. I am near over the edge of terrified for you, with everything that's going on, with so many who-knows-whats going on, why would you just disappear like that, Alexis?" With his voice returning to a normal volume, his concern was easily heard. The question he asked almost sounded like he was pleading with her.

"I don't know." She sighed.

"What?" Castle asked not understanding his only child.

"I don't know, dad." Alexis repeated louder with a shake of her head. "I really don't. I woke up. I woke up and and when I looked outside, I just knew I had to go out there." she finished with a gesture to the window. "It was like there was some kind of pull, y'know?" She finished with an awkward shift of her feet hearing how weak the explanation she used sounded.

The elder Castle, sighed with frustration. He found his way onto Alexis' bed and sat besides her. "And where were you pulled to?" he asked grumpily. The girl brightened, realizing that was the end of the shouting.

"I ran across the rooftops dad!" the girl near squealed. "I was so _into the night_!" Seeing her father's get-on-with-it face, she hurried her narrative. "Then I ended up in the park."

"What did you find in Central Park in the middle of the night?" Castle said dismissively with a quirk of his brow.

Alexis paused a heartbeat. "Vampires." She said as sincerely as possible as she locked eyes with her father.

"No way." Castle snorted, almost amused. Alexis only gave a slow, deep nod. "Shut the front door." Castle spit out, his eyes getting wider as he accepted the news. "No way!"

"One of them gave me a card with a number to call." She held the piece of cardstock Spike slipped her.

"A card? He carried a card on him?" her father asked, taking it from her and examining it. It read _The New Watcher's Council_ in pretty calligraphy. "What, he makes clocks?"

"Dad." Alexis rolled her eyes at him.

"Okay, the name does sound sort of ominous." Castle allowed, his eyebrows knitting reading the small piece of decorated card-stock. His eyes went back to his daughter, "You were about to call?"

"Yeah." Alexis nodded.

Castle thought a moment then spoke, "Don't."

"What?" His daughter asked,

"Don't call them yet, we don't know what these guys are about yet. Who knows what they could want with you." Castle scowled. "Let's do some digging, find something out on these people before we make any decisions." Alexis nodded, she had been so caught up in the moment she barely had time to process everything, her dad's idea made sense; use whatever data you can find to plan ahead before you make your first move. She took a moment to recall her time with the vampire in the leather duster.

"Dad, the guy, the vampire," Alexis started hesitantly, "he wasn't surprised at all when he saw me. He saw a girl hop into a fight and he treated it like it was the most natural thing in the world. He spoke to me like I should have known what I was doing and was surprised when I didn't."

"You got into a fight? With vampires?!" Castle's voice became high-pitched with fear and worry for his child.

"I totally fought vampires!" Alexis boasted but back-pedaled seeing her dad's face. "And I was so holding my own the whole time!" Her sideways glance alerted Castle that there was something more.

"But?" he pressed his daughter for more information with an angrily expectant look.

"But I went down from a sucker-punch to the head," Alexis admitted under her father's glare, "he helped me out when they came at me." The worry in the elder Castle's face was clear. "Then he talked about how I wasn't taking the classes and learning the lessons."

Her father nodded, he guessed it the night before. "There are others like you." He uttered the words, feeling the potential of them leaving his mouth. The ginger Castle nodded at her father.

"And he fights with them." Alexis added. "Well, not _with_ with them, but like, helps them fight."

"Someone trains them," her dad assumed, getting up from the bed. "Probably some kind of clandestine group that's been doing this for centuries. They're probably cold and manipulating." Castle began pacing in his daughter's bedroom, "and I'm calling it right now, probably British." He added with a sure nod. His daughter only rolled her eyes at his far-fetched ideas but remembered that Spike had a Cockney-English accent. The girl held back that fact.

"Dad, focus. Let's see what we can find out about them online." Alexis went to her desk and woke her laptop from sleep

"Oh, come on. A centuries old clandestine organization isn't just going to have a MySpacebook account." Castle scoffed as his daughter began typing.

"Found them!" Alexis cried triumphantly. Castle's head whipped in her direction. He bolted off the bed and almost stumbled towards his daughter and her computer. "Dad, you've got to read this!" The ginger exclaimed.

The father squinted as he read the words on the screen aloud. "'_Have you noticed huge changes in your life? Do you feel stronger, faster and more powerful? Do you need answers to questions you never knew you had?' _Who wrote this? It's terrible!" Castle criticized.

"Dad! Focus!" Alexis scolded her father. "There's a link here for 'yes'. I'm going to click it." Castle only watched the little white cursor move over the blue hypertext lettering on the website. Alexis pressed the mouse button and they were taken to a video. A youngish blonde man in a poorly fitted suit spoke, his eyes darted back and forth into then off the camera, obviously reading from cue cards.

_"Have you become suddenly stronger and faster? Do you have violent and terrifying nightmares? Have you also noticed yourself to be more aggressive and more willing to fight? If you answered yes to all of these question then you may be part of a long lineage of girls that have a special place in the world. I urge you to call..." _a long squint off camera and the man whined_ "__Xander, it's upside down!" _an "_Oh sorry, Andrew._" Came from off screen. A moment later the young man read off number as they flashed across the bottom of the screen.

_"We have help and answers ready for you. Don't hesitate to call us now." _The phone number kept flashing at the bottom and the screen froze as the video ended.

"Should we call?" Alexis asked her father looking up to him, expecting an asnwer. Castle remained silent and his face stoic. "Dad?" Nothing.

"DAD!" his daughter finally yelled.

"I DON'T KNOW!" he matched her in volume, but mixed with his own blossoming frustration "I really don't know. I just want you to forget about everything." He pulled her into a hug, keeping his child close to his heart. "I'm okay with you being strong and fast, but god dammit, Alexis, vampires? And now this crap too? I wish you were six again, when I could just make things better with a joke and a kiss on your head. I wish none of this ever happened to you."

"But it is, dad." Alexis reminded her father, voice muffled from his tight embrace. "It's happening right now and we need to make a choice."

"I know pum'kin, I know." Castle ruefully admitted staring at the flashing numbers on his daughter's laptop computer.

* * *

A/N: Thank you so much the support shown from the readers. Thanks for the kind reviews and the favorites, they mean a lot. Also sorry for not having more Becket and the boys, I plan to fix the lacking of our favorite cops.


	4. Chapter 4 - Digging

Time Frame: A few years or so after both BtVS &amp; AtS finales. Uses no canon after that.

Rating: T-Mature (cuz Faith still curses like a sailor)

Legalities: All B:tVS characters are that of the Mighty Whedon and his glorious intellect &amp; Castle is the property of ABC. This work is meant only in celebration and nothing ulterior

* * *

Chapter 4 \- Digging

Detective Kate Becket drummed her fingers over the keyboard on her desk. Becoming bored of that, she rested her chin on her fist as she continued to read over the report she had just finished, almost complete was the least glamorous part of her job. Her brown eyes drifted to the lower right corner of the computer screen to check the time. Deep into the day and things were quiet for her department, and while this would mean good things in general, it also meant that Becket and the other homicide detectives encountered something they seldom did, downtime.

While Becket reluctantly used the opportunity to finish long overdue paperwork, her more junior detectives found other ways to preoccupy their time.

"I'm telling you man, it's like this; we pick which side we're on from the get go. Good and evil, one or the other." the redheaded Detective Kevin Ryan argued with his partner as they organized case files from a metal cabinet by their area.

"People aren't just born evil." His partner Detective Javier Esposito argued with a scowl as he pointed a manila folder at the Irishman. "Freewill is a real thing. But _we_ chose good or evil everyday, it doesn't choose us."

"Oh yeah? Remember that eight year old we found out was poisoning his mom?" Ryan brought up to his partner who was already shaking his head, knowing where this was headed.

"That kid wasn't old enough to even be aware of the difference of good and evil."

"Sure and he was already batting for the wrong side."

Becket listened from her desk. _"What if it's both? Despite our ability to choose, what if Good and Evil pick some of us anyway?" _She thought, keeping her musings to herself not wanting to join the debate. She checked her smartphone for the umpteenth time debating on whether or not a text should be sent to Castle.

"That was an abnormal situation, doesn't count." Becket heard Esposito counter.

"It totally counts. And even if it doesn't then its the thing!"

Both Becket and Esposito looked over to Ryan, scowling first to themselves then to one another they simultaneously mouthed _"What?" _

Ryan saw their confusion and tried to clarify. "The thing that proves the point." He struggled with the words. "You know!"

"The exception?" Becket offered after a moment of silent thought broke the steady sound of their debate, she sounded unsure of herself.

"Yeah! The exception that proves the rule!"

Esposito rolled his eyes and sighed over-dramatically. "Oh, please! A break in the pattern which proves that the pattern exists? That's what that sentence means!"

"So what? I think it proves my point." Ryan refuted.

"Well, it's a stupid point."

"You're a stupid point." The two grown men dissolved to making faces at each other over an open drawer of a filing cabinet.

Becket rolled her eyes at the two and left them to their squabbling. She returned to her almost completed reports and not for the last time glanced at her cellular phone. As though by simply willing it, it chimed. A little too eagerly she checked and saw the single text was from Castle.

She read it with a frown and got up to leave. She received questioning looks from her fellow detectives when they saw her put on her coat.

"Goin' somewhere?" Esposito asked.

"I've got to meet someone, seems urgent." Becket replied casually.

"By someone, do you mean Castle?" Ryan teased.

"Listen, it seems important. Hold down the fort for me till I get this sorted." She gave them both her business tone and proceeded to head out.

* * *

_'Please come. I need help with Alexis.'_

She rode up the elevator, pulled out her phone and reread the text for the millionth time since the trip to his loft. Not enough flourish so it was serious and it was about his daughter, so it had to be something both private and important. It wasn't life and death or he'd have met her himself at the station. Becket's mind ticked off deduction about the missive. The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. Down the hall and at the entrance to his home, she took a breath, braced herself for anything and knocked. A shuffle behind the door was hear before it opened to a tired looking Richard Castle.

"Becket! Did anyone follow you?" He wore a bathrobe and was unshaven. There was a half-crazed look in his eye as he met her's.

"What?"

"Dad!" was heard behind him and Castle was yanked inside.

"Becket, come in! Close the door behind you." The detective heard Alexis and went inside.

"Castle, what is all this? Cryptic texts, the paranoia? Alexis? What's going on? "

Becket heard Alexis apologize in the living room so she followed her voice to a breath taking scene. Open books and print outs we strewn about everywhere. Several laptop computers were running different videos, the television screen played one on mute. Castle himself only added to the slightly obsessional environment in his bathrobe and his growing beard. Only his daughter who wore t-shirt, jeans and an annoyed look, gave an air of sanity to the crazy scene.

"What is all this?" Becket asked stunned.

"Research!" Castle answered proudly, Alexis rolled her eyes.

"On what?" Bringing her palms up heavenward as she shrugged.

"Alexis show her."

Alexis frowned. "Dad." His daughter was hesitant.

"No, it's fine, she can help, show her." Castle encouraged.

"Dad!" Alexis insisted, her ginger brows knitted in annoyance.

"Pum'kin, show Kate what you can do." Castle insisted from his daughter with a face and a look, Alexis rolled her eyes.

Castle..!" Becket began with frustration. Suddenly she was on the ground, there was more surprise than pain. A blink and then she was looking up at the same blue eyes and ginger hair that she knew belonged to Alexis Castle.

Her partner's teenage daughter had knocked her on her back and she was now on the floor. Becket tried to shove the teen off of her but to no avail. She struggled more, putting all her strength into removing the girl from her body but was pinned to the wood floor of Castle's living-room by the little ginger. Then the teen's small hand pressed on her sternum and the detective felt her chest compress. Becket felt the air being forced out of her lungs and in that moment, she became truly scared.

"Sorry." Alexis said with a frown looking down on the older woman. "Do you understand now?"

"Yes!" Becket choked out.

Alexis stopped pushing and got up off the woman. She helped Becket up and patted her back as she gasped for her breath.

"Alexis," Becket coughed, "what's going on? What happened to you?!" Becket was half hysterical as she managed the question. The girl led her to a couch and sat her. After a moment of Becket regaining her breath she fixed Alexis a look filled with a mix of confusion, and that same fear the girl saw before. Alex started to explain as Castle went around the living room, collecting papers in some unknown order. She spoke as though some deep tragedy had happened.

"I got stronger and faster out of now nowhere.

"Then?" Becket pushed, deducing there was more.

"Then things got crazier."

"How much crazier?"

"Crazy. Things that you're going to have a hard time believing, or maybe even understanding."

"Just tell me Alexis, don't patronize me." The NYPD detective demanded.

"We think there are others like me."

"No way!" Becket shouted to no one in particular as her legs shoot her up to a stand and began walking back and forth in front of the couch.

"Yeah, that's what I was like." Castle, who was still going about the room collecting things from different piles in the room, called over Alexis's shoulder. Becket looked to Alexis, hoping for more clarification.

"Kate, vampires exist."

"What the fuck?" The woman's brows knitted and had surprise, bordering on disbelief painted across her face.

"I know, right?!" Castle yelled, reams of paper in both hands now.

"There are monsters out there for sure, Kate. I helped kill a few of them a couple nights ago."

"Helped? Who did you help?" Becket looked to Castle inquisitively as she began to pace.

"Wasn't me, she didn't even tell me she went out."

"His name was Spike." Alexis answered her. "When I went out that night, I ended up in Central Park. I felt pulled there, almost directed." Alexis shook her head as she recalled the feeling, as though she was shaking it off of her. Castle looked on, his brows knitting as he listened to his child. "I saw him being chased by a bunch of guys, then got cornered. I jumped in trying to help, mostly I just got in the way." Alexis huffed a little, still angry at herself for how her first fight went. "After the fight, he gave me a card."

"You're serious?"

Alexis only nodded.

"So this guy, Spike..." Becket began.

"He's a vampire too." the little ginger provided.

The detective stopped pacing, as though trying to process what she was told. She looked at Alexis, who looked back expectantly. Neither spoke for a moment and then the older woman began blinking rapidly as if she was trying to clear her vision, then sat back down on the couch, cradling her head in her hands and began moaning "Oh, my God" repeatedly.

"There it is!" Castle announced and went to Kate's side after depositing reams and stacks of paper by a coffee table at the center of the living room.

"Dad, I broke her!"

"Nah," Castle assured his daughter with a confident look as he leaned over to rub Becket's back, "I knew this was coming. She's gonna be just fine."

Castle crouched down in front of Becket and forcefully shook her to gain her wavering attention.

"Becket, listen to me. Kate, please, we need your help. There is an entire organization that trains girls like Alexis, trains them to fight these monsters. They've got advertisements, Kate, ads everywhere. The internet, teen magazines, all talking about a destiny or something. Now she may be as strong as an ox but Alexis is my daughter. My child." Kate nodded, showing her understanding. "I am not going to just hand her to some strangers and hope for the best. I need to know as much as I can to make sure we make the right decisions. We did as much research as we could, but we need to dig deeper."

"We need your help." Alexis repeated.

Kate was silent for a moment, a glazed look over her eyes was the only response and father and daughter both waited.

"What do you need from me?" the detective finally asked, the castles let out a breath of relief.

"To find out the truth behind of all this." Castle replied making broad sweep of his hand. Becket followed his motoin indicating the piles of papers in his living room and the still running videos on the several laptop screens. Finally her eyes rested on the muted television screen showing a youngish blonde man in a suit and numbers flashing on the screen.

"Where do we start?" She asked, and the three of them got work.


	5. Chapter 5 - Dirt

Time Frame: A few years or so after both BtVS &amp; AtS finales. Uses no canon after that.

Rating: T-Mature (cuz Faith still curses like a sailor)

Legalities: All B:tVS characters are that of the Mighty Whedon and his glorious intellect &amp; Castle is the property of ABC. This work is meant only in celebration and nothing ulterior

* * *

Chapter 5 \- Dirt

Spike tapped the ash off his cigarette. Pale blonde hair, an almost sick pallor to his skin, black clothes from shirt to boots; the vampire lived up to his stereotype. Sitting on the ledge of a tall window several stories up let out smoke out from his room. He watched it waft into the Autumn night sky and dissipate into the air.

A push of his smartphone screen and he ended the call he had just made. Still nothing from that ginger newbie he met at Central Park. That girl was too smart already, knew the right questions to ask and ran when it made the most sense too. Maybe she was trying to come up with more good questions before making a move, do some reading up before committing. If it was him, there would be no toe testing the waters, he'd have already jumped right into the fight.

He had given all the information he had on that girl who jumped in to help him to the Council's local people after he first met her and just now, he checked up on the invitation he had given the little newb. Spike knew her answer wouldn't be 'no' but he didn't expect this long of a maybe.

The room he kept was large and furnished with well made wood pieces. A long fixture of more windows faced a brick wall of a building several feet away. A hard tapping at his door broke his thoughts. Evan, one of his scoobies, hopefully with something useful to tell him.

"Come on in, Ev." Spike shouted across the space as he flicked the smoke into the alley below. The single door in the room opened to a sweet faced teenager. He wore a hooded sweater, jeans and Nikes but looked like he should have been wearing slacks, a sweater vest and shoes with tassels on them.

"Me and Betty found her, Boss." he announced brightly, as he stayed at the threshold.

"What's the name then?"

"Castle, Alexis; age sixteen, she lives in the upper east side, daughter of someone famous I think." Evan replied

Spike gave him an annoyed look and checked his pack for another cigarette but decided against it.

"Are you doing that thing where you say the last name first?" He asked as he tucked the pack into his back pocket.

"Why?" He followed Spike as the vampire walked passed him, into the warehouse that was kept as his _de facto_ base of operations.

"Because everyone makes fun of you for it."

Evan looked hurt as he began walking to keep up with the dead Englishman. "You guys would make fun of me whether or not I did that."

"At least your self-aware." Spike offered as he headed down a set of metal stairs to a sort of clearing with large coffee table at the center which was surrounded by sofas and love seats.

"Big Bird", he shouted out to the warehouse arriving at the first level.

"Yeah." Was heard from from a few racks away. Spike and Evan eventually walked to the sound of the voice to find a tall teen-aged girl hunched over a desk. She was Chinese and had long hair dyed in unnatural colors, light purples and greens ran down her tresses. Her glasses reflected the screen and her chin rested on her fist.

"Does a Lot of extra curriculars, top honors in her class, grades that match mine." Betty read off her computer screen, continuing the information Evan gave.

"Yeah, she's a brain, tell me somethin' I don't know."

"Her dad's Richard Castle."

"That bastard!" Spike revealed his vampire face as he roared mid-step, Evan jumped back and fell against a rack. Betty had her hands up in front of her, eyes wide and warily watching him. Spike shifted back to his human face.

"Sorry, kids." Eyes downcast, and shame clear on his face, Spike spoke the apology sincerely. The last thing he wanted was his scoobies to be scared of him.

"What'd the guy do to you?" Evan asked wide-eyed , still breathing hard and regaining his balance. Betty remained quiet as she and Evan watched Spike gather his words, emotion rippled through him and the old vampire finally spoke.

"Bloody killed Derrick Storm, he did!"

"Should we be uh, checking with the police for a murder investigation, I guess?" Evan asked Spike hesitantly, and then looked to Betty, hoping for some understanding; she shook her head. Spike caught the exchange.

"The Derick Storm series by Richard Castle? They don't have you children read books at school?"

"I just picked up _Leaves of Grass_ by Whitman." Evan provided brightly.

"I'm on volume two of _Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire._" Betty added, Spike rolled his eyes at the both of them.

"Sodding try-hards." Mumbling to himself he turned and stalked off, finding his long, black leather duster by a hook on a nearby wall.

"Where are you going?" Evan asked as he left.

"One o' you toddlers text me her address." the vampire shouted at his scoobies without turning.

"Gonna go all stalker on her?" Betty shouted at him as he walked away.

"When it's Council related stuff, I'm a watcher_._" Spike called back, his coat sweeping as he went.

* * *

"It all goes back to Sunnydale."

Alexis and Becket nodded agreement. The ladies sat on the couch while Castle stood behind them with a laser pointer on a map of a Southern Californian town projected onto a bare wall in his living-room. With a push of a small remote in Castle's hand, the map zoomed in on the borders of Sunnydale. The man made a serious nod watching his editing skills in action.

"Since like forever, that town has these crazy statistics; a huge number of deaths per year, on par with Los Angeles, but with nowhere near the comparative population that those stats would produce. This weirdness went on for a little over a century, until a staggering decline around '96. That year was the first time in one hundred years, that town saw downward trends in accidental deaths, animal attacks, missing persons, and murders. And finally, in 2003, the whole town turned into a crater." Footage of a newscast played on the screen, eventually the two newscasters were replaced by footage of a bus narrowly escaping a massive sinkhole.

"Worst natural disaster in America. Experts concluded that erosion allowed ocean waters into the cave systems beneath the town and eventually weakened the bedrock, sinking the town." Becket brought up.

"People still contest that though, there are tons of conspiracies about it all over the net. A society of geologists even wrote a whole series of books with reasons why that was impossible." Alexis scowled as she spoke. Having had to wade through all the whack-job theories and hysterics about Sunnydale was a migraine inducing task into itself but politicians dealing with the Devil? Secret government experiments? Gangs on PCP! The list of crazy went on and on, but Alexis didn't know what was crazy anymore. With what was happening with her right now, and fairy-tale monsters coming to life, who knew what was possible now.

"And then there's this terrorist attack on London from the same year." Castle hit the remote button again and brought up grainy looped footage of a tower exploding. It was street level looking upwards; the focus was shaky and amateur. It ran for three seconds, a tall structure that looked old and ornate, red and orange fire exploded at the top most level and then, the image repeated. Both Alexis and Becket leaned in, becoming more interested. This was new info, and probably the reason Castle set up the well made infographics on PowerPoint and called them all in to watch.

"Should be completely separate events but..." Castle drew the word out dramatically and pressed the remote again with a little flourish. A cascade of previous images surrounded the looping footage, images of the a bus on an empty highway, and a still picture of a severe looking man donning glasses, a tweed jacket and a scar who Castle traced a circle with his laser pointer, "His name is Rupert Giles."

"That name shows up on the list of refugees at the camps FEMA set up for the people who ran from that sinkhole _and_ in the employee listing of a company that worked in the top floor of that building."

"And that company is old too, crazy old from what I dug up, and it was called the Watcher's Council Ltd." Becket added.

Alexis mumbled something and the detective turned to her. "What?"

"I guess we know what happened to the old Watchers then." the little ginger spoke louder and Becket remembered the card, the one that Alexis received from the vampire she fought besides.

It read _New Watcher's Council, Ltd._ in fancy calligraphy, written in embossed ink and was printed on quality card-stock. Their research on the company turned out produced more strangeness. An NGO charity slash all-girls school slash antiquities consortium? The weirdness just kept coming and then Becket remembered something else.

"He holds a chair on their board, has since a little after '03, this Giles guy, and he's got some other big titles in the other branches of their organization." the detective reached for a nearby laptop and began typing, finally she brought up a list of names from a school website. "See? Headmaster of the Joyce Summer's Academy for Young Women."

"A little more research on the name Joyce Summers turns up an obit in '99 and that the school was named after her in memoriam, which led us almost nowhere, until I started working on her daughter's name. Which is also on that FEMA refugee list, in fact all but two of the the top seats are on it. The connections keep piling up but we don't know the context to any of it."

Castle shook his head. "Sunnydale! I am telling you, it all goes back..." the writer pushed a button on his remote and brought up a map on the screen, "...to Sunnydale!" The laser pointer streaked back and forth underlining the towns name with red. Becket and Alexis began nodding, it all made sense. Nearly all the chair-members of this Watcher's Council had ties there. The answers had to be somewhere in that buried town. "Or at least these people do, and they seem to be running the show. So we find out more on Giles and Summers, current whereabouts, contacts and resources. We've got names now and solid leads, so we can start focusing on instead of just hoping something sticks."

And as the three focused at the the projected image, their eyes on upon a map, another pair looked inwards at them through a window. Eyes that were yellow and demonic, eyes that held malicious intent.


End file.
